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Series Introduction

Many textbooks have been written on control engineering, describing new
techniques for controlling systems, or new and better ways of mathematically
formulating existing methods to solve the ever-increasing complex problems
faced by practicing engineers. However, few of these books fully address the
applications aspects of control engineering. It is the intention of this new
series to redress this situation.
The series will stress applications issues, and not just the mathematics of
control engineering. It will provide texts that present not only both new and
well-established techniques, but also detailed examples of the application of
these methods to the solution of real-world problems. The authors will be
drawn from both the academic world and the relevant applications sectors.
There are already many exciting examples of the application of control
techniques in the established fields of electrical, mechanical (including
aerospace), and chemical engineering. We have only to look around in today’s
highly automated society to see the use of advanced robotics techniques in
the manufacturing industries; the use of automated control and navigation
systems in air and surface transport systems; the increasing use of intelligent
control systems in the many artifacts available to the domestic consumer
market; and the reliable supply of water, gas, and electrical power to the
domestic consumer and to industry. However, there are currently many
challenging problems that could benefit from wider exposure to the
applicability of control methodologies, and the systematic systems-oriented
basis inherent in the application of control techniques.
This series presents books that draw on expertise from both the academic
world and the applications domains, and will be useful not only as
academically recommended course texts but also as handbooks for
practitioners in many applications domains. Nonlinear Control Systems is
another outstanding entry in Dekker’s Control Engineering series.

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Copyright © 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc.